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Subject:Re: WIKI to produce customer documentation From:Steven Jong <SteveFJong -at- comcast -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 26 Oct 2003 09:23:36 -0500
The company that Cheryl Webber <CWebber -at- seagull -dot- nl> works at is
thinking of using a WIKI methodology for documentation. Disclaimer: I
haven't worked with WIKI, so it sounds fascinating. I'm sure we'd all
like to hear how it goes.
Aside from the nuts and bolts of implementing the systems, it's
interesting to think about the process and policy of updating
documentation in a collaborative, completely democratic way. It seems
to me that using WIKI means that every comment is accurate, and
everyone equally competent to make changes. No? Well, that's what
you're going to get.
If everyone is entering information, then no one is vetting it--it will
now be very time consuming to go through it looking for random
changes--so whatever anyone puts in, you may have to accept as fact.
This would be like leaving documents as Word files on a server and
letting everyone open and edit them at any time, with no review and no
version control. In my experience, review comments overlap and
contradict each other; in a WIKI environment, I suppose that means
whoever gets there last wins.
In a conventional methodology, not only is information vetted, but so
are the information sources. Some sources are more authoritative than
others; some people are better writers than others. In a WIKI
environment, anyone who cares to make a change can do so. I should
think you'll get more raw information, but it will be just that--raw.
It may not be clear, concise, timely, or accurate. (I was going to say
at least it will be timely, but to draw an analogy to organizations,
when everyone is responsible for something, no one is. So if you figure
everyone will pitch in, I wonder if, after the novelty wears off, no
one will, at least not on time.)
To sum up, WIKI sounds like fun, but it also has many potential
problems. We'd like to hear how it goes.
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